One of My Favorite Beer & Food Pairings Yet!

Last night I happened across one of my new found favorite beer & food pairings and I wanted to share it with everyone. While it’s probably a pairing which would be pretty self-explanatory to anyone whose been pairing food & beer for awhile, I think it’s a great combination and a great introduction to the hobby for any pairing newbies out there.

The food I had was a very spicy Thai dish called “Evil Prince Tofu” (slightly fried bean curd sautéed in chili sauce with onion, carrots, red and green peppers, and scallions) and I had it with 2 stars for a little extra kick (if you’re here in Portland and want to exactly replicate my pairing, the food came from Pom’s Thai on Congress St).

The beer I chose to pair with the Evil Prince was a bottle of Holy Sheet Uber Abbey Ale from the Clipper City Brewing Heavy Seas collection, poured into my new Allagash Brewing tulip glass. Holy Sheet is a Belgian-style strong, dark ale (with a 9% ABV) with a hugely sweet malt presence. And it was that malty sweetness that made this pairing work. The abundantly sweet, dried fruit flavors of the heavy malt (which didn’t have any sort of hop presence to combat) cut right through the extreme spice of the Thai dish, making for the perfect compliment to the food. I’d like to see wine do that!

Give this pairing a try yourself. If you have access to takeout Thai food, great. If not, any sort of spicy dish will do. And similarly, if you can get Holy Sheet then great, give it a try (it’s a fine beer with or without the Thai food, too). But any sort of heavy-on-the-maltiness Belgian-style beer should do the trick. The point is to pick a sweet malty beer to cut through the Thai spice, so stay away from the hops for this one. And once you’ve done it, let me know what you think; I’d love to hear some responses (or maybe variations)! Good luck and enjoy.